Despite the alleged abuse and her reported and visible injuries, Kaitlyn Grispi said Monday she loves her husband, who is being held without bail at the Barnstable County Correctional Facility. The two have been talking by telephone nearly every day while he is in prison.

She also wants the man that she married three years ago, Joshua Grispi, back in her life – but only after he’s gotten help.

He is accused of brutally beating her in a case that one Middleboro police officer called “the worst case of domestic violence I’ve ever seen.”

Joshua Grispi, 25, a professional cage fighter and former Ultimate Fighting Championship competitor, was arrested twice in four days, Aug. 1 and Aug. 4, and he faces a string of domestic abuse, firearm, drug and animal cruelty charges after allegedly assaulting his wife.

Court documents detail brutal abuse of Kaitlyn at the hands of her husband – including allegations that he punched and kicked her repeatedly, pulled her off the ground by her hair, trained the family dog to attack her and sent her recent texts threatening to choke and kill her.

Kaitlyn told police that her husband – who has a tattoo reading “Break jaws not hearts” – had sicced the family dog, Buddy, on her weeks earlier.

Despite the documented abuse and her reported and visible injuries, she said Monday that she loves her husband, who is being held without bail at the Barnstable County Correctional Facility. The two have been talking by telephone nearly every day while he is in prison, she said.

“My husband’s a great father and my kids miss him so much,” said Kaitlyn, 25, a mother of two children, ages 1 and 3, as she broke down crying. “It’s hard. My son’s birthday is tomorrow. It’s just rough.”

Standing on the porch of her Middleboro home Monday afternoon, Kaitlyn Grispi said her situation has been blown out of proportion in police and media reports.

“It’s sad because they’re making it out to be way crazier than what it was,” she said.

A week earlier, late in the evening on Aug. 4, a partially-clothed Kaitlyn ran from her home and her husband to a neighbor’s home for help, court documents show. The neighbor called 911. Kaitlyn suffered dog bites, bruises, scratches and a concussion, and she said she spent the night in the hospital.

Monday afternoon, visible were a bruise on her upper left arm and two small puncture wounds on her legs. Two days earlier, she said, she got a spray tan “just so I can cover up.”

“I went to Walmart the other day and I was sitting there and I noticed everyone staring at me,” she said.

After agreeing to be photographed by an Enterprise photographer Monday, she briefly went inside her home, applied face makeup, and came outside again.

Page 2 of 3 - Kaitlyn – with big, blue eyes and long, dark hair – said her domestic situation has only made headlines because of her husband’s involvement with the UFC.

“It’s about his name with the UFC. It’s not Kaitlyn Grispi with my picture getting domestically abused,” she said. “I would like to see how many domestic abuse (cases) happen in Middleboro. How come they don’t get any of this (attention)?”

Kaitlyn believes her husband’s aggression may be a result of concussions he suffered during his fights.

“I told him today that he needs to be evaluated with a CAT scan to see what is going on up there,” she said.

At times, Kaitlyn said, she hasn’t felt safe in her home, a white house with a white picket fence that the family moved into last year. She declined to discuss how much abuse she may have endured in the past, leading up to her husband’s recent arrests.

“Yes. What he did is wrong. That is wrong to put your hands on a girl, and I understand that and I know that,” she said.

She remains steadfast in her commitment to their marriage. She has known Joshua since age 13. The two met while she was living in Halifax and he in Plympton.

She picked up a black photo album containing photographs from their wedding day three years ago. The couple – she wearing a strapless, white dress and he, a tuxedo – is shown smiling and dancing. On the cover of the album is the word, “Family.”

“I’m not just going to throw away a marriage,” she said Monday.

Tensions and arguments grew between the couple after they moved into their new home last year, Kaitlyn said.

At times, she defended her husband, saying he is “a good person.” She downplayed the accusations of his abuse.

“Behind closed doors, everyone has a fight,” Kaitlyn said. “Maybe not that far, but everyone’s gonna fight. Every marriage has its problems. Does that mean you give up on it?”

She said she won’t go back to her husband if he doesn’t get help. “I need to actually see the change in order to make that decision,” she said.

Standing near Kaitlyn, Joshua Grispi’s brother, Jesse Skeffington of Plympton, said there is “a lot of confusion in the family” about the charges lodged against his brother.

“No one can picture Joshua doing this. The family can’t picture him doing this,” Skeffington, 31, said. “I can’t picture the scene that was painted, and obviously the family loves her.”

Page 3 of 3 - Skeffington said he has been visiting Kaitlyn regularly to check up on her. Her two children were placed in the custody of Kaitlyn’s parents after his brother’s arrest.

Kaitlyn is concerned about her dog, Buddy, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier that was taken into custody by Middleboro Animal Control last week. Buddy is currently under a 10-day quarantine to observe the dog for signs of rabies, and may have to be euthanized.

“I want my dog back,” said Kaitlyn, who told police last week that her husband would often choke the dog unconscious and that he did so during the Aug. 4 incident.

Kaitlyn said she has met with a woman who counsels domestic violence victims. Wearing a silver bracelet bearing a Cross, she said she is looking to God to get her through everything.

When asked why she’d consider staying with her husband, a man accused of physically harming her repeatedly, Kaitlyn replied: love.

“I love him,” she said. “I do love him. I can get past that if he can get the help. I know it can get better, because I know who he is.”